


No Food or Drink

by zaffre



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Library, College Student Dean Winchester, Fandom Trumps Hate, First Meetings, Food, High School Student Sam Winchester, I Tried, I'm not the best at humor, Librarian Castiel, Library Rules, M/M, a little fluffy?, maybe a little funny?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 13:52:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15050537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zaffre/pseuds/zaffre
Summary: For the ProufoundBond Exchange June 2018 challenge with the theme of ‘food’. Castiel, a librarian at the Lawrence Public Library, is being terrorized by a patron who’s treating the library like it’s his own personal lunchroom.





	No Food or Drink

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Carrieosity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carrieosity/gifts).



There is a small, silver plaque at the entrance to the Lawrence Public Library that reads ‘Please, No Food or Drink Allowed’.

In the five years Castiel has been a librarian in Lawrence, there have been many who have attempted to flout this rule. Teenagers often try to sneak in energy drinks during finals. Occasionally, an adult enters with their lunch or a latte. Sometimes it’s a small child with candy.

And every time, Castiel rolls his eyes, clears his throat to get the person’s attention, and points at the sign. The patron usually looks sheepish and dumps the offending material into the conveniently-placed trash can below the sign or sits on the benches outside to finish it off. Many a parent has had to calm snuffling children while trying to explain why sticky candy has no place alongside print materials.

There’s a reason Castiel is so strict. The library’s renovation was only completed four years ago, the very renovation that won the 2016 AIA/ALA Library Building Award. So Castiel intends to keep the library looking just as new as the day it opened, maintaining vigilance in his role as guardian of the library. One of his coworkers, Balthazar, likes to call him Madam Pince and Marian the Librarian. Castiel mostly ignores him because he knows his attentiveness has kept the library beautiful.

But in the last month, a disturbing trend has developed.

The first inkling of trouble comes when a conscientious volunteer brings him an automotive magazine with empty Funyun and Cheetos bags tucked between the pages. Understandably upset, Castiel vows to keep an even better eye out for people violating the no food or drink rule.

The second infraction happens two days later. Castiel is reshelving on the third floor and finds chili lime beef jerky sticking out of the old card catalogue cabinets. Although the card catalogues are no longer in use, they’d been retained as a part of a display documenting the changes to the Lawrence Public Library from its founding in 1854 up to the present-day renovation. Castiel is furious that someone would vandalize historical property and begins making random sweeps through the library during his shift to keep an eye out for rulebreakers.

The following week, there’s popcorn on the floor surrounding the flat screen in one of the conference rooms. The arrangement of kernels almost looks like someone’s been throwing them at the screen. When he turns on the TV, the menu for ‘The Road to El Dorado’ pops up. Castiel doesn’t suspect a patron for that one – all the conference rooms are locked until needed. He confronts Balthazar, who is often a bit too cavalier about the rules for Castiel’s liking and who also never stops talking about animated movies, but he denies any involvement.

Castiel has conniptions over the BBQ sauce and nacho cheese fingerprint stains reported on the covers of several blu-rays in the audio-visual section four days later. As he wipes the mess off, Castiel takes note that most of the movies are westerns, although there’s the occasional animated film. He begins to suspect that all this food vandalism is related.

The tableau of gummi bears, most cut in half and arranged in some kind of gummy bear war massacre in the children’s reading area is what brings everything to a head. Castiel spends several hours scouring the security videos to determine the culprit. And at last, he has his plaid-clad food vandal.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t recognize the patron from the footage. He sits at the checkout desk all the next day and the day after that, a print out of the person’s face for reference as he screens every single person coming into the library.

Castiel almost misses him. A giant beanpole of a kid comes through the doors and his criminal companion is so close on his heels Castiel barely gets a glance at his face. But he does have a distinctive face, one that some might even say handsome if it wasn’t for all the destruction he’s caused. Castiel quickly steps around the desk and brings the pair to a halt.

“You. What is your name?” Castiel demands, pointing a finger at the food vandal.

The giant beanpole throws his head back and sighs, turning to face the criminal. “What’d you do this time, Dean?”

This ‘Dean’ person makes a face that is clearly meant to convey innocence. “What?”

“You have broken a library rule.” Castiel holds up the printout of Dean setting up his gummy bear massacre.

“Dean! I told you to cut that out,” says the beanpole, looking exasperated.

“And you are?” asks Castiel.

“Sam. Sam Winchester. And this is my brother, Dean. Who’s very sorry for making that mess,” Sam tells Castiel, looking contrite.

Dean Winchester looks unrepentant. “Ratting me out, nice.”

Castiel frowns. “This is not the only ‘mess’ he has made in the library recently.”

Sam winces. “I told him to stop, but–”

“This library is not even five years post-renovation. We are trying to keep it as clean as the day we won the ALA Building Award.”

Dean just shrugs and says, “It was just a little sugar. And who cares about some stupid award anyway?”

“I care,” grits out Castiel. “From now on, you will follow the rules about food and drink or you will be punished.”

“Ooo, punished?” repeats Dean in a suggestive tone.

Sam elbows him. “He’s sorry. He won’t do it again. Right, Dean?”

Dean flashes a cocky grin. “Of course not.”

Castiel narrows his eyes at Dean. “See that you don’t.”

Dismissed, the brothers climb the stairs and Castiel watches them head toward the study area. He’s not convinced at all by Dean’s half-hearted promise.

And sure enough, when he walks past the study carrels the Winchesters had occupied that afternoon, there’s a neat, very intentionally-placed pyramid of marshmallows waiting for him. Castiel grinds his teeth together and sweeps the mess into a garbage can.

Castiel is going to make sure Dean Winchester stops this nonsense if it’s the last thing he does.

\--

Thus begins the game. One Castiel did not sign up for, but one the annoying Mr. Dean Winchester seems quite happy to play. After nearly every time Dean visits the library, Castiel finds some new food- or drink-related litter. Never in the same spot, of course. No, there’s empty cans of Red Bull stashed between the books in biographies, jelly beans lining the shelves in history, and an empty pizza box stowed in audiobooks. They are going to get ants at this rate – Castiel can’t be sure he’s finding all of Dean’s messes and it’s infuriating.

In retaliation, Castiel has forced Dean to turn out his pockets upon entry into the library. He has forbidden him from bringing in a bag. He even asked Gabriel to lend him his goldendoodle to sniff out Deans’ contraband food like some kind of airport drug dog. Of course, Gabriel had refused and unhelpfully found the entire situation hilarious. Castiel his cousin the next time he’s detangling a chain made of candy wrappers from the wiring in the computer lab.

And the most frustrating part is that every time Castiel imposes a new rule, Dean shows no signs of contrition. One time he’d even asked if Castiel was going to ‘strip-search’ him while waggling his eyebrows. Castiel revokes Dean’s borrowing privileges for that, but Dean just brings his own books and smirks when Castiel gets frustrated about the loophole Dean’s exploited.

Dean must be getting the food in some other way, Castiel decides. So, he searches Sam, too, who is increasingly apologetic. And then when he gets nowhere with that, he scours the video camera feeds. Nothing.

Castiel’s supervisor, Anna, refuses to let him ban Dean completely from the library. Instead, she tells Castiel that he clearly has a grudge against Dean and needs to work on his people skills.

Asking the other librarians about the heartache Dean is causing them strangely turns up nothing. Even though Castiel knows that Dean comes in on days Castiel doesn’t work, it’s as if he only makes messes and violates the rules when he knows Castiel will be there to discover it. Balthazar laughs at him when Castiel floats this idea, then asks why he’s being so blind. Castiel has no idea what he means by that.

So Castiel begins conveniently working in the same area Dean’s occupying to keep a better eye on him. Maybe if he can get ahead of the problem he can figure out how Dean’s sneaking the contraband in and stop worrying that he’s missing food in random places.

And that’s when he catches sight of Dean writing in his book and nearly has a fit.

Castiel stalks over and whispers furiously, “What are you doing?”

Dean looks up in surprise, then quickly recovers. “Afternoon, Cas.”

Ignoring for the moment that Dean somehow knows his name and has shortened it without asking, Castiel snatches the book from Dean’s hands and inspects it closely. It’s a well-worn copy of _Frankenstein_ with scribbles in the borders, under lines in the text, and highlighter splashed around so liberally it looks like he’s trying to make a found poem.

“Geez, calm down, Cas.”

“You _write_ in books?” Castiel hisses out.

“Uh, yeah. When they’re mine, like that one is.” Dean huffs a laugh at him. “Why, you don’t?”

“Of course not.” Castiel tries to infuse as much disgust into that statement as possible. “Books are not to be ruined with inane doodles.”

Dean gives him a funny look. “Figures you’d think that. The stick up your ass extends to that, too, huh?”

Castiel just glares at him as he returns the book.

“Writing in books is another way of loving them,” Dean offers as Castiel turns to leave.

“It’s most certainly not,” Cas says, defiantly. “Keeping things as close to their original condition as possible is how you ‘love’ them.”

“Huh. Guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree,” says Dean with an easy smile, and goes back to ruining his book.

\--

After weeks of tailing him, Castiel finally catches Dean in the act.

He’s making several stacks of five or more books and seems entirely focused on what’s on the spines. Every couple of minutes he zooms off to a different area of the library and returns with another armful of books, sniggering. And he’s doing this all with a Twizzlers hanging out of the side of his mouth. Or maybe it’s Red Vine, Castiel’s not certain. Gabriel would probably know.

But what Castiel is certain of is that he’s going to kick Dean out of the library for the day for both the mess and the food. He steps out from behind the stacks and is about to storm over when Dean approaches Sam’s study carrel with one of the stacks in hand. Castiel stops in his tracks when Sam looks up, because it’s obvious that he’s having an awful day. His brow is furrowed, his usual dark circles are especially pronounced, and his shoulders are drawn in tight, like he’s bracing for something terrible.

But that all melts away when he reads the spines on the stack of books Dean offers. Sam’s face clears as he shakes his head and snorts. Dean grins at him, then goes back to his mess, and a moment later comes back with another stack. This one actually makes Sam smile.

Castiel watches in disbelief as Dean repeats his task over and over, Sam becoming more relaxed and happier with each offering, until Dean finally seems content with Sam’s state of mind enough to take a break. He plops himself down into a chair and props his feet up on the only free corner of the table of books he’s created, munching happily on his licorice. Sam gets back to studying, and Castiel leaves the brothers be, returning to his office to have a moment alone.

That…that was exactly like the sorts of silly things that Gabriel had done to cheer him up after his parents separated. Castiel frowns at himself. Perhaps he’d misjudged Dean, and perhaps he wasn’t just a selfish ass who liked to make messes for other people to clean up. And even though he’d just made another mess with all those books, well, he was actually inadvertently doing the library a favor with that one since that would only boost their usage stats for the month.

So Castiel decides to let it slide, just this once. The licorice shouldn’t be too much of a threat to the books, after all.

When he returns to the area a few hours later, the Winchesters have already left and only one stack of books remains on Dean’s table. Had one of the volunteers cleaned up the mess?

Curious, Castiel walks over, picks up the stack of books, and tilts his head to read the titles.

_going going_

_out of my mind_

_Something’s Brewing_

_A Pair of Blue Eyes_

_Not Quite What I Was Planning_

_Longing for a Kiss_

_I Can’t Keep My Own Secrets_

_Hello, Sunshine_

Cas blushes.

\--

From that point on, Castiel watches Dean with different intentions. He observes how much he cares for Sam, how focused he can be when he actually does some studying of his own, and how kindly he treats other patrons. Castiel had almost dropped the books he was reshelving one day when he heard Dean helping Mrs. Moseley find a book in the next row. Later, he watches Dean sneaking some sandwiches and bottled water to one of the kids that Castiel knows isn’t getting lunch because school’s out and his parents are barely scraping by right now. And several days after that, Castiel happens upon Dean reading _The Piggy in the Puddle_ aloud to some children in the children’s reading area, using different high-pitched and silly voices for each character.

Castiel has to hide in his office for the rest of the day after that, certain that Balthazar will ask why he can’t stop smiling.

They start chatting. Only a few sentences at first, mostly Castiel asking if Dean is finished with a resource, or informing him his borrowing privileges have been restored. Then one afternoon, Castiel notices Dean reading _Harry Potter_ and casually asks if he liked the seventh book and _The Cursed Child_. Two hours later, Sam has to practically pull Dean away so that he won’t be late.

Apparently, Dean attends community college at night. Sam will start his senior year of high school in the fall, but is also taking some intro classes at the community college and completing summer work for his AP classes. They come to the library to do their studying in their down time between Sam getting out of classes and Dean getting off work, and Dean heading off to his own evening classes.

Dean tells Castiel he’s thinking about getting an associate degree in mechanical engineering but isn’t sure. In the meantime, he works construction jobs to make sure that Sam has enough money for whatever his scholarships won’t cover when he heads off to college in another year. Haltingly, Dean tells him about his family. About how his mother died when he was small. And how his father left them shortly after Dean turned 18, so he took two years off after high school to make sure he could take care of Sam before thinking about his own future.

Then, after finding out Castiel hasn’t seen any movies made after the 1960s, Dean gets him to stay after hours one weekend and watch ‘All Dogs Go to Heaven,’ ‘Anastasia,’ and ‘The Road to El Dorado’. Dean tolerates Castiel’s complaints about the accuracy of ‘Anastasia’ and Castiel humors Dean going on about the ‘awesomeness’ that is Burt Reynolds. Actually, Castiel rather likes the passion with which Dean speaks about his celebrity crush. He’s obviously not afraid of who he is and of his preferences.

So Castiel shares his love of historical fiction and languages with Dean, debates which of Vonnegut’s books is his best (they ‘agree to disagree’ with each other’s opinions), and tells Dean about summers as a child spent trying to win the reading marathon contests offered by his local library. About how Gabriel’s apartment and the library became the only safe places for him when his mom and dad split, and how the smell of books is the thing that calms him most when he’s having a bad day.

That conversation eventually leads to Castiel confessing that keeping the library pristine sometimes helps him feel like he actually has his life under control. That maybe he isn’t worthless like his father made him feel like when he left, or the failure his mother made him feel like when she let her extreme disappointment be known that he wasn’t going to be a doctor like her.

Dean is really quiet at the end of that conversation, and Cas takes it to mean he’s thinking about the similarities between their fathers.

But shortly after then, the food vandalism stops completely.

\--

“He’s different, you know,” Sam tells him one day while Castiel is helping him retrieve a journal from storage. They left Dean doing god only knows what to the copier. Castiel just hopes he doesn’t return to his office wallpapered with photocopied butts.

“Who?” asks Castiel, absentmindedly.

“Dean. He’s been different since he started talking to you. In a good way.”

Castiel doesn’t know what to say to that so he just continues scanning journal spines.

But Sam persists. “I don’t think he’s had a friend in a long time. Certainly not since dad left. It’s good to see him putting himself out there again.”

That pulls Castiel up short, and he turns to look at Sam. “That’s not…he and I, I’m not–”

“Hey, hey,” reassures Sam. “It’s okay. It’s all okay.”

Castiel isn’t sure what means by that.

Sam smiles, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “You make him happy, Cas. I think, uh, I hope he makes you happy, too.”

“Oh, yes. He does. He’s a good person,” he says awkwardly, then quickly refocuses on his task, trying to ignore Sam’s knowing look.

**\--**

When Dean finally asks Castiel to dinner a month later, Cas raises an eyebrow. “I hope you don’t intend to feed me Funyuns and gummy bears.”

Dean laughs. “Nah, for you I’ll pull out all the stops. I’m talkin’ homemade burgers and fries.” Dean must catch Castiel’s skeptical look at his cooking abilities, because he adds, “In fact, how about tonight? I don’t have class and Sam’s out with friends. We can swing by the grocery store on the way, and I’ll grab ingredients to make you pie, too.”

“Oh, now you’re trying to use food to entice me after infuriating me all this time with it?”

“What can I say? Making Sam laugh was my first goal. Getting the ‘hot’ librarian’s attention was an unexpected bonus. And then you just kept getting all worked up and even cuter and I couldn’t help myself.”

Castiel gives him a half-hearted glare. “Only you would find rule-breaking to be an effective means of courting someone.”

“But it worked, didn’t it,” says Dean with a cocky grin and a wink.

Castiel squints at Dean until he can’t help but break. “Yes, it did,” he says with an eye-roll. “Okay, I’ll agree to dinner as long as you reveal how you managed to sneak all that food past me. Not knowing has been incredibly infuriating.”

“It’s a deal.”

   


   


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Crypto and deadlykittenkay for help with movie titles. I also grabbed a ton of book titles from: https://cariejuettner.com/2014/09/01/10-book-title-found-poems/
> 
> And oodles of thanks to justanotherpipedream for the edits and helping me get unstuck. I won them in the Fandom Trumps Hate auction in January and they very patiently waited several months for me to have something for them to beta, then got back to me in less than a day both times I asked if they could look over this fic. If they decide to do another auction for FTH in January 2019, I 100% recommend them and would bid on them again in a hot minute. Thank you for guiding me to a much better final piece, justanotherpipedream – you are awesome! ♡


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